Flights Arriving Before They Depart

BCNGRO · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:14 am

I was checking the KLM flight AMS - YVR and I realized the flight arrives to its destination just 45 minutes (local time of course) after leaving AMS, that's why I started wondering if there is any commercial flight which arrives before it departs.

I know Concorde used to do it but I don't know if there is any commercial jet which is nowadays able to do it. Just curiosity Smile

.

Thanks,
BCNGRO

Focus · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:23 am

I think most (if not all) of nonstop Australia>>U.S. flights actually arrive "before" they departed.

Ratypus · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:31 am

BA, SN and BMI flights between Brussels and London Heathrow arrive 10 minutes after they depart in respective local times. Amsterdam Schipol to London City airport arrive 15 minutes after they depart. Both of these routes may manage to land 'before they depart' depending on flying conditions and ATC (rare at LHR!)

If there are any flights which manage to arrive before they depart (local times!) they could be between Belgium, the Netherlands or France and the UK - any flights from Rotterdam? Reims (northern France)?

PS Found one!! I flew this flight - Arica in northern Chile to La Paz, Bolivia - flight time of 45 minutes and a time difference on the way - Lan Chile flight 960 leaves Arica at 11.45 and arrives in La Paz at 11.30!

RDUDDJI · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:32 am

there are hundreds of flights that arrive "earlier" than they departed. Almost all of the Pacific to U.S flights arrive before they departed due to the Intl. date line. I would assume that almost any flight that flies East over the Intl Date Line would arrive earlier than it departed.

There are also some short hops that go West into another timezone that arrive before they departed. Like ATL to BNA. DTW to ORD, etc.

Ratypus · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:33 am

Yes, Focus is right - all eastbound trans-pacific flights cross the international date line and so 'arrive before they depart'.....I made the mistake of forgetting this, and arrived in Santiago off a flight from Auckland only to find my hostel wasn't booked. Because it was still Monday! Again!

ahlfors · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:33 am

CO flight 2 departs Guam 7:10 am and arrives Honolulu 18:15 the previous day and continues to Houston where it lands 7:00 am the day it departed Guam.

[Edited 2005-01-16 17:35:31]

alphascan · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:36 am

You can leave IND and arrive at MDW 10 minutes before you left.

DIJKKIJK · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:37 am

The BA concorde service on the LHR-JFK route used to do that. Not sure of the exact timings though.

Concorde..... SIGH Crying

bsu747 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:52 am

Flown many times where I landed before I took off such as CDG-MAN, CDG-LHR, AMS-MAN on short haul sectors but the best for me was flying from AMS-SEA in 1999 on a NW DC-10 we arrived in SEA 5 minutes before we departed AMS.
I remember hearing the captain telling us whilst on approach to SEA that we were due to land over an hour early and it suprised me when I looked at my watch to see that we were going to land before we took off.
I knew it was possible to do on short haul flights and flights that crossed the date line, but for long haul Transatlantic I thought Concorde was the only way to do it. At least I was able to do this the cheap way on a NW DC-10.

Cactus739 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:12 am

back in the early 90's I flrew LHR-ANC and we left at 3pm, and landed at 301pm.

Made for a really long night. Smile

AzoresLover · Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:24 am

Concorde has been the only commercial jet that could gain time by flying west on the same route (CDG-JFK and LHR-JFK) as subsonic jets. Others have pointed out that there are many short flights in the US going west and crossing a time zone that arrive before they left, not uncommon at all. Of course, the Date Line makes all flights crossing it heading east arrive earlier than they left.

Historically, my favorite flight was a Pan Am 707 that left Auckland, NZ at 11:59pm on Monday nights, and arrived in Papeete, Tahiti, at 6:06am Monday mornings.

Two complete Mondays to live through...I always thought that was fascinating!!

fbgdavidson · Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:44 am

The BA Concorde service on the LHR-JFK route used to do that. Not sure of the exact timings though

[Edited 2005-01-16 19:09:02]

sw733 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:50 am

A lot of short hops over Lake Michigan...Grand Rapids to Chicago and Milwaukee, and I believe there is also a Muskegon to Milwaukee that arrives before it leaves.

sw733 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:50 am

I also know that a lot of CLE and CMH to ORD/MDW flights arrive at the same time they leave on the schedule (and by flight time many arrive before they leave)

BritPilot777 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:01 am

DTW to ORD got me there 10 mins before I departed if I remember correctly

[Edited 2005-01-16 19:02:03]

HLF-MD11 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:07 am

In 2003 I flew from FRA to FAI - dep around 19:10 lcl / arr in FAI 17:15 lcl
This was a Cargo flight - no pax flights on this route .....

Sabena332 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:12 am

This was a Cargo flight - no pax flights on this route .....

Wrong, Condor offers FRA-ANC flights in the summer season.

Patrick

HLF-MD11 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:15 am

?????

FAI rpt FAI !!!!!

But I just remember that DE flies also to FAI via Whitehorse ( 3-letter Code ??)

pr1268 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:18 am

Here's some:

TYS-BNA if such a flight existed (it's 175 statue miles by Interstate 40) Wink/being sarcastic

GRR-ORD on AA (5 mins. earlier)
MAF-ELP on WN (10 mins. earlier)
ATL-BHM on DL (actually, its SCHEDULED arrival is 3 mins. later but surely that's due to air traffic)

I'm surprised PHX-LAS (on HP) doesn't arrive earlier than departure.

Sabena332 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:27 am

FAI rpt FAI !!!!!

But I just remember that DE flies also to FAI via Whitehorse ( 3-letter Code ??)

Ups, sorry! I thought I read ANC and not FAI.

Whitehorse is YXY if I remember correct, these Canadian IATA codes are driving me nuts anyway.

Patrick

sw733 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:26 am

Pr1268 reminded me of a flight I actually took, so I dont know how i forgot it. Atlanta to Huntsville, AL arrives before it leaves. Such a short hop.

soups · Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:30 am

LOS to ACC depart 9am get to ACC 8:45AM. how about on the time zone in the pacific? Hoping from islands or from East russia to Alaska

pr1268 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:32 am

The key here is to find (1) a really short (less than one hour) flight that (2) goes Westbound, and (3) crosses a time zone boundary. Oh, and (4) avoid the International Date Line 'cos you land the next day. Laugh out loud

FlyMKG · Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:37 am

Skyway's flights from MKG (Muskegon) to MKE arrive about 30 minutes before they depart.

soups · Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:37 am

you can land the previous day too Smile/happy/getting dizzy

going west to east

Cactus739 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:42 am

After PR1268's comment about HP's PHX-LAS, I looked at theirs and Southwest's schedules for PHX-LAS.

HP has their flights scheduled for 1 hour and 12 minutes, so you arrive 12 minutes after you left.

Southwest has theirs scheduled with three different lengths. One hour (so you land right as you leave), or 1 hour 5 minutes, or 1 hour 10 minutes.

capri · Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:25 am

Spain/Portugal to Morocco in summer, arrive way b4 departure time, Morocco doesn't forward the clock, so it's 2 hrs difference between Spain and 1 hr between Portugal, not only that, the ferry arrives before its departure time between Tarifa-Tangier or Algeciras-Tangier.

UA744KSFO · Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:31 am

Any eastbound flight over the international date line will do this. Here are the ones that I've personally done:

PEK-YVR
SYD-SFO
SYD-LAX
AKL-LAX

BCNGRO · Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:44 am

CO flight 2 departs Guam 7:10 am and arrives Honolulu 18:15 the previous day and continues to Houston where it lands 7:00 am the day it departed Guam.

I specially like this one. You land the same day but you fly to the day before and forward again. And all in just one flight! Big thumbs up

kevin82277 · Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:00 pm

ATL-BNA and ATL-HSV and BHM, you arrive before you depart.

BOSSAN · Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:19 pm

Last year, on the last Sunday in March, I flew CDG-BOS. This flight is normally scheduled as 7 hours 55 minutes, with an in-air time of about an hour less than that. The time difference between Eastern Standard Time and Central European Time is 6 hours. Except that day, because Europe adopts Daylight Saving Time on the last Sunday in March, and the U S adopts Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April. As such, my flight took off and landed at the same clock time.

ZKSUJ · Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:33 pm

NZ-USA flights tend to do that as they cross the international date line.

TakeOff · Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:34 pm

NRT-JFK on ANA. Left Tokyo on a Monday at 10:00 a.m. arrived in New York on the same Monday at 8:00 a.m.

ual4me · Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:41 pm

I just book a flight yesterday from PEK to PDX (via NRT).

Dep PEK 9.10am 3/25
Arr NRT 1.20pm 3/25

Dep NRT 3.15pm 3/25
Arr PDX 7.10am 3/25

I've done this before-very strange feeling after being trans pacific for 10-12 hours, but arriving before you left...note on this flight, I actually arrive 2 hours prior to leaving PEK.

Last time I crossed the date line, took me a few days to get the day right...

undehoulli · Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:48 am

What about SIN-LAX (SQ 20)? Today SQ 20 left SIN at 16:03 and is scheduled to arrive in LAX at 14:46. That looks like it's arriving about an hour and a half before it left. A check of SQ 22 (SIN-EWR) reveals that it arrives about 4.5 hours after it left SIN.

As a side note - this summer when I ended up at EWR almost every Friday night, I always saw the EWR-SIN flight pushing back. That A345 looks awesome!!!

ssides · Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:28 am

My first commercial flight was MAF-ELP on WN when I was about 8 years old. My dad told me that we would be arriving before we left, and I couldn't figure it out.

Treg · Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:32 am

All flights from TLL (Tallinn) to ARN arrive before they depart. Flight time is 55 min, time difference is 1 hour.

erj · Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:15 am

HP: PHX-LAS arrives something like 5 minutes before departure... when the timeszones are different that is

stirling · Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:54 am

Dep PEK 9.10am 3/25
Arr NRT 1.20pm 3/25

Dep NRT 3.15pm 3/25
Arr PDX 7.10am 3/25

I've done this before-very strange feeling after being trans pacific for 10-12 hours, but arriving before you left...note on this flight, I actually arrive 2 hours prior to leaving PEK.

I'm curious, would this make you actually a day older than you actually are?

NWAFA · Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:56 am

NRT-LAX, NRT-SFO, NRT-SEA all arrive before you leave!

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